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- Former Abia State governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu said Saurday that President Muhammadu Buhari may not be interested in being given an automatic ticket to re -contest for the 2019 Presidential Election.
- He said he knows Buhari would want other candidates to explore the democratic process to test their popularity.
Speaking in an interview on Saturday at the private wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Kalu aligned his views with other politicians calling on Buhari to go for primaries ahead of the 2019 elections.
According to Kalu, President Buhari as a democrat would want every interested candidate to be given a chance to test their popularity and exercise their democratic right.
It is for this reason, according to Kalu, that Buhari would want free and transparent primaries where an acceptable candidate would emerge.
“ Buhari himself is not even looking for automatic ticket. Buhari is a man that is very fair and free in what he does. And his feeling is that if any candidate is willing to contest against him, he should come to the Eagle Square.
“So President Buhari also feels that automatic ticket for him is not right. He said the spavce should be open for other people who also want to contest. He wants the openness of the primary to take place.
He further said: “ The contest should be thrown open. There would be no rancour. We are in democracy and I would vote for the president. I’ve said it times without number, that the president needs to consolidate on his achievements because he is very popular. He is still the only person carrying 12 million votes on his back.” his tenure has been besieged by illness. So the president genuinely deserves a second tenure.
“ We are not afraid of anybody who wants to contest against the president.”
Kalu also said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) would not bounce back because of the massive looting of the nation’s treasury during the last administration.
He said the international community was outraged by the massive looting of the nation’s treasury by PDP, that it would amount to the greatest disservice to call for the return of PDP.
Kalu said Buhari was under restraint not to expose the gargantuan corruption that took place at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He said if Nigerians knew what happened at the NNPC, they would not allow any of the looters to escape through this airport or any border out of Nigeria.
On PDP. Kalu said : “How can they bounce back when the treasury was looted? How can they bounce back when the international community doesn’t see anything good in them? How can they bounce back when we gave them our treasury, they opened and looted it.
“We would call names if they want to us to call names in future. All the world powers knew what happened and this is why they tactically insisted that PDP must leave power. PDP committed what was very shameful in a democratic process. There is no system that is not with corruption but looting is an affront to Nigerians.
On Atiku he said: “ To be honest with you, Atiku was my boss and he is still my boss. And I hardly want to discuss Atiku Abubakar. You know he is very close to me. The question you are asking me is a lot of task but I wish him well. If I were to advise him before he left, I would say, ‘don’t leave. Let us build a large team together.’ If he wanted to contest against the president, it would be open at the Eagle Square. If he wins, we would support him.
